The Truth Serums

By: Wendy Callahan 

My Story

Since the beginning of time, a mother’s primary role has been to protect her young. It’s a role that most mothers take very seriously. When the medical community  introduced vaccines to protect children from the ravages of disease, it was only natural for mothers to want their children protected. It wasn’t until my son started having seizures seven days after his MMR, DTaP, HiB, and Pneumococcal vaccination at fifteen months, that I started researching the wisdom of this practice. Like most of us I thought vaccines were harmless, tested for safety, and a necessity. Since he had just been vaccinated, I had my "What you need to know" fact sheet that had been given to me by my pediatrician. I read, "A vaccine, like any medicine, is capable of causing serious problems, such as severe allergic reactions or anaphylaxis." I also read, seizures can in fact be a "side effect" of vaccines. It also stated in the fact sheet that of every 10,000 doses given, six will cause seizures, but like so many of us, I never thought it meant my child. A doctor explained to me, "If Chase’s seizures were related to vaccines, the seizures would take place within two days of the shot, not seven." He went on to explain vaccines are for the good of the nation, however, "there will be a few 'sacrificial soldiers' in the war on disease." He was sure my child was not one of the six who have seizures from vaccines.

What I didn’t realize is that my son was having reactions from every shot and I just hadn’t put it all together. Following his two-month vaccinations he screamed and would arch his back to such a degree I could barely hold on to him. I didn’t know the French call this the "encephalitic cry", brain damage in progress. Two weeks after his nine-month vaccination he was admitted into the hospital with uncontrollable diarrhea to which no cause was ever found. I didn’t know diarrhea was one of the ways the body rids itself of poisons. Next, he developed a rash on the back of his legs and his shoulders. The nurse diagnosed dermatitis caused by bubble bath. At this time I didn’t know the phenoxyethanol (antifreeze), a preservative that protects against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria in vaccines, could cause dermatitis and eczema. I now know that all these things were attributes of vaccine damage. At first my pediatrician diagnosed Chase with syncope. Our next course of action was to visit the Pediatric Neurologist. An all day video EEG was performed on an out patient basis. The doctor on duty informed me, on a scale from one to ten, ten being the highest seizure activity, Chase was a seven to eight.  At this time he was having six to eight complex partial seizures a day.

 The doctor explained to me that if Chase were his patient, he would start anticonvulsive drugs that day. In retrospect I can only say how fortunate for Chase, he was not his patient.

The next day I received a call from the Pediatric Neurologist the one referred by Chase’s pediatrician. When I mentioned my fear of vaccine damage he stated, the seizures are definitely not vaccine related but I can see no other reason for them (such as a brain tumor). When I reminded him of the ‘fact sheet’ he became very defensive and I was told, "If children are going to have seizures, they just happen to start around the time of vaccinations and this is just a coincidence." When I pointed out I thought coincidences such as this should be addressed in a study, he became very aggressive and suggested I come to his office immediately so he could "educate me" on how wrong my vaccine damage theory was. Needless to say, I did not keep his 'immediate appointment'. I requested a second opinion. The next doctor said, "Your son’s seizures are idiopathic (without reason) in nature and this should comfort you. It is best we can’t find a reason". His official diagnosis code was 345.41. For those of you not familiar with coding, this number stands for partial epilepsy with impairment of consciousness. The 1 at the end of the code stands for intractable or not easily managed seizures. 

The Pediatric Neurologist proceeded to explain to me that my son needed the drug Tegretol. Tegretol is one of fifteen anticonvulsants medically prescribed for seizure disorders. This drug would be prescribed for a period of two years. The most common side effects of this drug are: nausea, dizziness, blurred double vision and continuous back and forth movements of the eyes. An allergic reaction, i.e. difficulty breathing and constriction of the throat muscles, had to be watched for. Liver damage was also a possibility, however, I was assured his blood would be monitored for this every six months. My job was to watch for yellowing of the eyes. 

If his ankles swelled while on the drug congestive heart failure might be the problem. Ulcers in the mouth and or easy bruising were to be immediately reported to his doctor, and the list continues. If you have a reaction or side affect to this drug you cannot just stop taking it, you must be weaned off. Stopping a seizure medicine all at once can cause status epilepticus, a serious problem. 

At this point I decided I must look for another option, as this was unacceptable. Our neighbor’s daughter had seizures and is using a treatment called the Ketogenic diet.

Her daughter has been seizure and medicine free for almost five years. Prior to the diet, she had been on eleven different anticonvulsants none of which stopped her seizures. She was also diagnosed with intractable epilepsy. When I asked for this diet option, I was told it was not allowed until Tegretol had failed to stop his seizures.

I had hoped his seizures were not from vaccines mainly because I did not want to be wrong about something I had allowed and participated in.  I found it odd the doctors didn’t want to know the cause behind his seizures but wanted to just treat the symptom. How could they be so sure it wasn’t vaccine damage? Are any unvaccinated children being studied for seizures?  Why are doctors so defensive when it comes to vaccines? Why couldn’t I start a diet before medication? I had to know and I had to find out quickly. My first clue that something was amiss was that children with their DPT shots, get  four tetanus shots before the age of 18months. That didn't seem right so I looked further starting with the ingredients. At the time of this turmoil with my son, I was enrolled at the local Junior college getting my Medical Coding Certificate. I was required to write a paper on a disease for my "Principles of Disease" class. I asked my teacher if I could do the research on vaccines instead and she agreed. It was only supposed to be five pages long. I turned it in at twenty two. I never expected to even find any information on vaccine damage on the internet much less 98,000 websites devoted to it. Now that I have graduated, she has invited me back to her class to give my PowerPoint presentation on vaccine damage. She has been one of my biggest supporters. Hopefully, "my homework" will help its readers recognize the effects of vaccine damage and ways to avoid problems that arise from inoculations.

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